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A staged home sells faster than an unstaged one. That's why you see model homes dressed to the nines. You need to set the stage for buyers to envision themselves living here. That'll make them more inclined to purchase your Tucson home. If it's in your budget, hire a professional stager. They know how to maximize every room's potential and hide their flaws. But if a home stager isn't in the budget, there are a few simple home staging tips that won't cost you a dime and take little effort to do yourself.

Simple Home Staging Tips You Can Do Yourself

Less is More

Consider a minimalistic approach. The first of my simple home staging tips that costs absolutely no money to do is to get clear out your extra stuff. Clutter can stop buyers from purchasing your home. Keep countertops clear of as much clutter as possible. Put mail in a locked desk drawer (you don't need buyers snooping through it anyway). Stash away toasters, blenders, etc. You want buyers focusing on how much counter space you have, not what's on the counters. Reduce artwork to a few key professional pieces in each room (put the children's artwork away). Let buyers see the walls instead of dozens of pictures crammed together. Scale down your book collection by one-third to one-half so that there is space on your bookshelves.

Depersonalize

Another one of the simple home staging tips you can do yourself is to depersonalize your space. As I stated before, you want a buyer to envision themselves living in your Tucson home. That's a little difficult to do with your children's school pictures, family vacation photos, Suzie's horse-riding ribbons, and Joey's baseball trophies taking up space around the house. Box up all personal stuff and take it to your storage unit for safekeeping until you move into your new home.

Use a Bit of Elbow Grease

Never underestimate the power of a good deep cleaning. Make sure you do this before you take listing photos. Believe it or not, dirt will show up in these. Scrub the windows, walls, baseboards, and moldings. Clear out the cobwebs. Vacuum behind the fridge. Clean inside the oven (yes, buyers look there, too). Shampoo the carpets. Deep clean the upholstery and drapes. Scour the grout in the kitchen and bathrooms. Make sure your home sparkles from top to bottom.

Furniture Mix and Match

Yet another one of my simple home staging tips that makes a huge impact is switching around your furniture. Sometimes, a side table in one room might make a better nightstand in the bedroom. A heavy bureau could look better in a hallway nook. Reduce the amount of furniture in an overfilled room to make it seem bigger. Any extra furniture that you won't be using should go into storage while your home is on the market.

Light and Bright

You don't want your rooms to feel like dark caves. Flood them with natural light wherever possible. That means getting rid of heavy draperies and opting for simple blinds. Even valances create a heavy feel to windows. So, remove them. Before taking photos, hosting an open house or showing your property, open the blinds up to allow natural light to stream inside. For areas of the house that don't receive a lot of sunshine, add lamps with softer light to create warmth while illuminating them.

Ditch the Storage Boxes

Finally, the last one of my simple home staging tips I'll leave you with is to get rid of your storage boxes. Yes, they keep everything tucked away, which is fantastic and very convenient. Unfortunately, they also relay the idea that there just isn't enough room for everything in your Tucson house. And that's not the impression you want to give potential buyers. This includes plastic bins, over the door hangers, any storage containers on top of the cabinets, and extra racks inside the house and garage. Since these things are already packed up, put them in your off-site storage unit as well. Extra space in the closets, on the bookshelves, and in the garage means there's plenty of room here for buyers to grow in. That's what you want them to believe.

Why a storage unit instead of, say, stacking things neatly in the garage or shed? Because buyers look everywhere. Even neatly stored boxes take up valuable space. The small monthly investment in a storage unit could help you sell your home much faster. It's well worth it. Contact me when you're ready to put your Tucson home on the market.

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